Dan Ťok of Skanska elected to serve as a president of the American Chamber of Commerce in the Czech Republic

Prague, June 23 - During the annual General Assembly held on June 19, 2014, Dan Ťok, CEO of Skanska, was elected to serve as the new President of the American Chamber of Commerce in the Czech Republic (AmCham). Ťok has served as the Chair of Platform for Transparent Public Procurement, a multi-association and governmental body established to improve the economic value of public procurement in the country. He also has served as vice-president for finance for 3 years.

“We want AmCham to be a forum where all important parts of society, both public and private, can speak about the important economic issues facing the country, and, especially, listen to each other’s views,“ Ťok said. “We know we need to be more competitive, and we know that good government must be a key factor in our competitiveness. The challenge is deciding how and getting everyone moving toward the same goal. The ability to co-operate constructively is a skill we must develop if we want to be successful as a country.”

Ťok succeeds František Dostálek, who has agreed to chair a group of leading businesspeople and economic experts that will focus focus on competitiveness. He will be assisted by Zdeněk Vilímek of Coca-Cola, who leads advocacy planning as First Vice-President.

“Our competitiveness depends on how we create value that other countries desire enough that they will pay a high premium,” Dostálek says. “We want to approach this from a different perspective than usual government strategies, which view the economy as different chapters divided by government ministries. We want to start instead with different questions: how to create more value-added manufacturing in the country? How does Prague become the business hub of Central Europe? How does Brno become the high-tech center of Europe? How do we move government investments from spending money in the short-term to providing a stable and long-term economic benefit? "

“The reason that we once were the stars of Central Europe- the talent of our people- has not disappeared,” VilÍmek says. “In fact, it is stronger today than it was in the 1990s. The problem is that our economic successes are being overshadowed by our failure to build an equally modern system of government. The solution for this is the same as we used in the economy: talented people who are motivated and organized. We need to stop waiting for a savior, and realize that democracy depends on individual participation.”

The Executive Committee of the AmCham Board of Directors also consists of the following people:
• Zdeněk Vilímek of Coca-Cola Central and Southern Europe as 1st vice-president;
• Jan Brázda of Constellation as 2nd vice-president;
• Michal Chour of Radisson Blu Alcron Hotel as 3rd vice-president and
• Michal Nebesky of Citibank as vice-president for finance.